[chris_wot]

How does milking a cow harm an animal?

[ToolsDevler]

Cows are manipulated to produce much much more milk than they would naturally. Also the machnines doing the work are harsh and painful. But even when it is from a farmer doing everything by hand on a really happy cow. Being vegan means in the first place avoiding everything produced by or out of animals. The rule "It must not harm any animal to be vegan" is an additional rule for products which are not made by or out of animals. Standard super market milk violates both rules.

Source: A friend of mine is vegan since almost 20 years (before it was hyped).

[ianai]

Animals only produce milk for their young. In order for humans to take that milk humans forcibly impregnate the animal then kill its young shortly after birth - never giving it any of its mothers milk. That’s why all dairy is not vegan.

[Lio]

I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian but in order to have a female cow produce milk regularly you need to cycle it through pregnancy.

So the question is what happens to the calves?

Well the females go on to be milk cows but males calves are raised just long enough to be slaughtered.

If the male is particularly unlucky it will become a veal calf, which I'm sure you'll agree is not a great life.

If the male cow is "lucky" it will be castrated and allowed to grow into a bullock (British terminology, known as a steer in USA).

Very rarely a male calf will be raised breeding but it's a pretty small chance.

So milk.

In the case of egg laying hens, most male chicks will go off to be gassed as they have no commercial value.

So eggs.

[ianai]

Gassing may be one option. Another thigh is simply grinding them alive.

[Lio]

I guess that would depend on where you live. In the UK that would not be legal.

[cannonedhamster]

Milking a cow requires that you keep the animal producing milk which means numerous pregnancies that produce either another dairy cow that has been born into milk slavery or a meat cow destined for the slaughter house after fattening. I'm not sure where people get the idea that milking hurts the cow as it doesn't. The machines are automated and some are ones the cows voluntarily enter for milking. If the cows don't milk regularly it can be painful for them.